Author Archives: lawrence serewicz

About lawrence serewicz

An American living and working in the UK trying to understand the American idea and explain it to others. The views in this blog are my own for better or worse.

Thoughts on TRILCon15: The Privacy Arms Race

Posted on April 27, 2015 by lawrence serewicz

On the 21st of April, I attended the Trust Risk Information and the Law Conference 2015. It was by the Centre for Information Rights. The theme was the Privacy Arms Race. My blog on the previous conference can be found here.[1] A … Continue reading →

Posted in culture, customer service, management, privacy, transparency, Uncategorized | Tagged Facebook, Privacy, social media, technology, transparency, Twitter, wearable technology | Comments Off

Friend or Foe? The state’s only question about your digital identity

Posted on March 29, 2015 by lawrence serewicz

The major issue for the web is how to identify a user. At first glance, this seems an obvious question. We know who someone is by the IP address and the owner of the computer. Except that is not always … Continue reading →

Posted in compliance, elearning, information management, privacy, records management, Uncategorized | Tagged digital domain, identity, NSA, physical domain, Privacy, surveillance, web | 1 Comment

Vexatious What the public sector calls a troll?

Posted on February 26, 2015 by lawrence serewicz

On the web, people who are argumentative, rude, or even threatening are called trolls. People block them and shun them from contact. In extreme cases, they can be banned from the social media platforms. The same process occurs in the … Continue reading →

Posted in bureaucracy, compliance, coruption, Uncategorized | Tagged complaints, customer service, FOIA, Public sector, troll, vexatious | 6 Comments

Who cares if records get lost?

Posted on February 1, 2015 by lawrence serewicz

When we hear about the lost records at the Home Office or other public sector organisations, many of us will not give it a second thought. We think that lost files or poor records management are facts of life. We … Continue reading →

Posted in bureaucracy | Tagged Child sexual abuse inquiry, lost records, poor records management, public sector organisations, records management, records manager | 8 Comments

January Break see you in February

Posted on January 4, 2015 by lawrence serewicz

Dear Subscribers, I hope you had an excellent 2014 and I wish you a wonderful 2015. I am letting you know that I am taking a break from blogging until February. I have been writing three blogs over the past … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

Why do bureaucracies delay disclosing information: the Case of Daniel Morgan Independent Panel

Posted on December 30, 2014 by lawrence serewicz

According to a recent report, the Metropolitan Police have delayed the work of the Daniel Morgan Independent Panel.[1] The article says the delay is caused by the lack of an agreed protocol with the Panel for the transfer of documents … Continue reading →

Posted in bureaucracy, coruption, culture, records management | Tagged Bureaucracy, daniel morgan, Daniel Morgan Independent Panel, Data Protection Act 1998, Home Office, Metropolitan Police, News Corporation, reputation management | Comments Off

The lies organisations tell themselves: the case of Rotherham Council

Posted on December 15, 2014 by lawrence serewicz

Every man has some [truths] which he would not tell to everyone, but only to his friends. He has others which he would not reveal even to his friends, but only to himself, and that in secret. But finally there … Continue reading →

Posted in coruption, culture, leadership, management | Tagged Child protection, Child sexual abuse, England, Great Britain, Independent Police Complaints Commission, Member of Parliament, Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham, Rotherham Council, South Yorkshire, South Yorkshire Police, United Kingdom | Comments Off

Is an organisation corrupt or just ill?

Posted on October 31, 2014 by lawrence serewicz

When we hear about a corrupt organisation we often are surprised and outraged. What we fail to consider is that all organisations are never completely healthy. They are all ill to some extent. They will have practices that are dubious, … Continue reading →

Posted in coruption, culture, leadership, management | Tagged Ethics, leadership, organisation, Senior management | 1 Comment

How work can compromise our ethics

Posted on September 17, 2014 by lawrence serewicz

Before we enter the work place, we are never warned that the work can deform us ethically. We hear about accidents, sexual harassment, or even fraud, but how many of us are warned about the way that work can deform … Continue reading →

Posted in coruption, culture, leadership, learning organisation | Tagged Corporation, Crime, Ethics, Hannah Arendt, Lehman Brothers, Moral responsibility, Rotherham Council | 1 Comment

The Facebook experiment and the web’s ethical void

Posted on July 24, 2014 by lawrence serewicz

The Facebook Experiment has upset many people.[1] In the experiment, which was conducted in 2012, Facebook manipulated the timelines of some of its users. They filled it with good or bad news to study its effect on the user’s mood. … Continue reading →

Posted in compliance, learning organisation, management, privacy, Uncategorized | Tagged digital domain, ethical content, Ethics, Facebook, Facebook Experiment, Hans Kelsen, Law, Lawyer, Legal ethics, Nazi, Weimar Republic | Comments Off